Suspected Church Shooter Allegedly Said He Wanted to Start a Race War

More details are emerging about Dylann Storm Roof, the 21-year-old man suspected of murdering nine parishioners at a church Bible-study group. CNN is reporting that Roof allegedly confessed to police and said he wanted to start a race war.

Note: this post has been updated to include comment from the Charleston Police Department.

That characterization, however, lines up with statements made by relatives of the victims, who say Roof told his victims: “You've raped our women, and you are taking over the country . . . I have to do what I have to do.” He also allegedly left one woman alive as a deliberate move, “because we need a survivor.”

Roof’s childhood friend Joey Meektold ABC that Roof said he “wanted something to spark up the race war again” shortly after the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

“He didn’t agree with some things and somebody had to do something about it,” Meek told ABC. “He said that he thought that blacks, the blacks in general as a race, was bringing down the white race.”

Meek said he had never heard Roof target specific black people or use racial slurs. Nor did he notice any unusual behavior in his friend in the days leading up to the shooting. “He never did any of that so it was just pretty much a shock,” he added.

Facebook photos of Roof depict him wearing a jacket with patches commonly associated with white supremacists.

Authorities told CNN that Roof recently bought a .45 caliber gun, though it is unclear whether he used the gun in the shooting.

Nine parishioners died in the shooting, including South Carolina state senator Rev. Clementa Pinckney, and their deaths are being investigated as a hate crime.

Several of Roof’s acquaintances told reporters troubling stories, observing that Roof, a high-school dropout, was a “loner.” Some, however, said that Roof “flat out told us . . . he was looking to kill a bunch of people.”

“He was big into segregation and other stuff,” Dalton Tyler said to ABC. “He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.”

Roof’s uncle Carson Cowlestold The Washington Post that while Roof was a “quiet” man whose mother “never raised him to be like this,” he was deeply ashamed and angered that his nephew could commit such an act. “I’d be the executioner myself if they would allow it,” he said.

It could have ended quite differently, sources told NBC: Roof reportedly told police that he almost didn't go through with the shooting “because everyone was so nice to him” during the church meeting he attended for nearly an hour before standing up to begin the massacre.